UPFRONT AND CALENDAR

Published on January 01, 1998.

Just as long as we don't find one in our motel room drawer. After winning Best of Show at last year's Creative Show San Diego, Carlsbad, Calif.-based Big Bang Engineering created the Call for Entries for this year's San Diego contest. They went to town with something that would make a Jehovah's Witness fall out of his watchtower. Wry copy like, "But you mustn't be afraid. Embrace the suffering. After all, martyrdom is the next best thing to actually winning an award," accompanies primitive illustrations and a faux leather, gold-embossed cover for that complete religious tract feel. Explains co-creative director/art director Wade Koniakowsky, "You're talking to a real shrewd bunch of people here. Most things wouldn't be interesting enough to people in advertising." The intent is not to mock religion but to present awards fascination in "a spiritual, cultic style," he says. Additional credits to co-creative director Rob Bagot, writer Oliver Albrecht and illustrators Glenn Francis and David Blank.

Malice a Fore! thought. Arnold Communications in Boston has created a five-part TV campaign for Pinnacle, Titleist's distance ball, that pulls off this amazing feat: it manages to make golf actually look like an entertaining if dangerous sport. According to chief creative officer Ron Lawner, Pinnacle "is for weekend players. They want to hit that ball as far as they can." Hence, the campaign's tagline, "No ball goes farther," illustrated by a "Drive Across America" theme, in which Pinnacle two-time North American long drive champion Jason Zuback (who's got the forearms of a home run king), accompanied by a Greg Kinnear clone of a brand manager, tees off wherever the hell he feels like it on a little piece of roll-up turf. Directed by Scott Burns at Tool of North America, the two travel from the top of the Empire State Building to a Toledo diner to an empty Las Vegas swimming pool and on to Venice Beach and Hawaii -- Zuback always blasting the ball at supersonic velocities. Additional credits to art director Ron Harper, writer John Petruney, producer Meredith Tedford and editor Carl MacNeal at National Video.

The Lex-Files. Somewhere between an America's Most Wanted re-enactment and a bad Saturday Night Live segment lies a bizarre nine-minute-long promotional video, from New York-based startup DiNoto Lee, for Boise Technology and the Lexmark toner cartridge. Accompanied by posters that were sent to Lexmark sales reps, the video, "Operation Convert," touts the superior benefits of the product while at the same time mocking the mind-numbing sales tactics it takes to get purchasing staff to switch brands. Fred, a typical "desensitized" manager, is kidnapped by Team Alpha, a behavior modification commando unit, which deprograms and reawakens the choosy toner cartridge consumer inside him. The only alternative he's offered, however, is Lexmark and its interminably hyped "lifetime guarantee." Greg DiNoto, who wrote and directed the video, explains, "We did in the advertising what we'd really like to do in the sale -- make them a captive audience." Additional credits to print freelance art director Lynn Braneck, producer Keith Browne, editor Jamie Nagler at Ohio Edit and sound designer Chris Girand at Chris Girand Sound.